Autzoo.1587 net.misc utzoo!henry Tue Apr 20 17:58:45 1982 psi vs relativity vs quantum mechanics I am not a physicist either, but my impression was that quantum mechanics has been integrated quite satisfactorily with *special* relativity, which is the theory of interest when discussing the light-speed limit. General relativity is another matter, and in fact general relativity is believed to be inconsistent with quantum mechanics, but general relativity is basically a theory of gravity and does not bear on the issues under discussion. As for the problem of wave functions collapsing instantaneously, I don't believe this represents a problem at all. The wave function cannot be sensed directly; only the location of the electron can be sensed. Any discussion must stick to what is observable -- the wave function is not, and hence is out of the picture. I strongly suspect the problem disappears if you stick to stating the problem in terms of where the electron is found to be -- it cannot be found to be everywhere at once, and hence there is no instantaneous change involved. The wave function is not an "event". Special relativity does not state that "nothing" can go faster than light (I am under the impression that things like phase velocity in microwave theory are routinely > c); it states that nothing that can carry *information* can go faster than light, because this would lead to effect-before-cause paradoxes when observing from a suitable frame of reference. I think close review of quantum-mechanics textbooks would be in order before further discussion of the matter; English is just too slippery a medium for discussing quantum mechanics and relativity, which are both notorious for strange and counterintuitive effects. Contentions that telepathy is faster than light are mostly cases of people falling prey to the powerful delusion (the basis of much magic) that "the map is the territory". Sorry, it isn't. "You can go to sleep and in 1/5 of a second be dreaming that you are on Alpha Centauri III." True, but you aren't really there, or NASA's budget could be much smaller. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.